By Shimon Prokupecz, Jonathan Dienst and Andrew Siff, of NBC News
A knife-wielding man was shot by police officers responding to a domestic dispute on New York City's Upper East Side Monday, law enforcement sources told NBC New York. The suspect's mother was also struck by the gunfire.
It happened at about 2:14 p.m. ET at 408 E. 65th Street. Police said a woman called 911 to say her 22-year-old brother was holding their mother at knifepoint.
"The police trucks started coming in, and sirens were going all over, cops were running," Amy Emery, who was in the area attending a job interview, said. "People were running around, they were actually screaming and running away from that area."
Responding officers arrived to find Edgar Soto and his mother in the sixth-floor hallway outside their apartment, authorities said. The officers called for back-up, and a sergeant arrived with a stun gun and deployed it on Soto, to no effect.
That's when Soto turned to approach the police officers with the knife, police said. Two officers fired a total of five shots, and Soto was shot in the abdomen, side and groin.
His mother, identified as 49-year-old Flora Soto, was hit in the buttocks, police said.
Both were taken to New York Presbyterian Hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
It's not clear what sparked the dispute.
Longtime friends of Edgar Soto said there was no warning for what happened.
"It's shocking," neighbor Steve Letavish said. "I knew the kid for awhile. I give him a high-five when I see him. You don't believe it until you hear it for yourself, and you can't go home because of it."
Another neighbor, Daniel Brown, said, "My heart hurts for the father. I've known him for a long time."
Edgar Soto's father is said to be a longtime city sanitation supervisor. He could not be located Monday.
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